Balancing with Baby

(waves crashing) Hi. Welcome Back. I'm so happy to be here with you and with Kristin and Rudd and Johanna and Charlie. You may remember them from the prenatal sequences that we did and their babies, at that time in the bellies. Now we're all going way back. (chuckles) We're gonna do some real postnatal yoga action now with babies.

Let's just start with a nice wide stance, and you just wanna check in with your posture and alignment. Make sure we're not hunching or rounding the shoulders. Lengthening up the spine, feeling the lower abs engage a little bit to support your spine. Lifting a little bit through the sternum. Right, Charlie?

(laughs) Good. We're gonna warm up our legs a little bit just swaying side to side. We did this in a little bit of an earlier sequence without baby, but baby sometimes likes this. Rudd and Charlie, they like a little sway. While we're doing that, we'll take a nice deep breath, inhaling, exhaling.

(giggles) Good. A few more. Just rocking them into our practice. Warming up our muscles, softening our joints and ligaments. Now let's slow it down.

Slow. Slow. Slow. Good. Then just take it back into the center.

Just roll the shoulders up and down the back with our little babies going along for the ride. (laughs) Good. We're gonna heel toe our feet so they're coming into a Chair pose but be a little wider if you need a little extra support for balance you can have your feet a little bit wider. We're gonna sink into chair but we're gonna do it a few times, so we're gonna start out taking it just gradually into it. Just bending the knees a little bit, lowering the tailbone to the earth, lifting the sternum.

Good. Then straightening back up. Let's do that again. Babies are doing great. Mommas are doing great.

Good, we're gonna pause right here sitting back into the booty, sitting back into the heels, lengthening out the spine, really drawing the abs in towards the spine. Opening the shoulders, rolling 'em down the back. Good. You'll start getting a little heat generating there. (laughing) Start to press into the feet and come back up into standing.

We're gonna work with balance. We're gonna come up on to the balls of our toes, pause, holding baby not so easy. Good, just enjoy it. Stretching through. Sink back onto the heels into Chair pose.

Again, engaging the belly to support the spine. Lengthen through the spine, press through the feet. Come back in to standing and back up on to the balls of your feet. Pause, and sink back down. I'm doing this with my hands just because this is what I'd be doing if I had Ruby, in case you're wondering.

Come back up one last time. Come up on to the balls of the feet, and pause. Then just sink back down to the heels. Staying in standing this time. Feeling nice and grounded.

Now we're going to give the babies a little ride by doing a twist. We're just gonna sway, twisting, and back through the center. Other way. Staying really conscious of what's happening in the back. Keeping the shoulders open.

A nice easy twist. Babies usually like this one, depending on their mood. (chuckles) They seem to be doing pretty good. Last couple times and then we'll hold it over to this side. We'll start to come into a modified crescent.

Feet about hip distance apart, and we're just gonna sink our weight right inbetween our feet, and sometimes you can get down low enough where you can rest the baby right here on your quad. You can just play around with that. Walk the toes back. Lengthen out the spine. Tuck the tailbone a little bit to help you support in the length.

Good. Then we're gonna do a little pulse like we did in the earlier segment. Just a little bit of a pulse, and pulse, sinking into the glute, stretching the hip flexor, engaging the lower belly, lifting through the upper back so we don't round over. Good, Charlie. Good, Momma.

(laughs) Good. Couple more. Beautiful. Let's pause right here in crescent, and just see if you can get a little extra tuck, so you can get a little more of a stretch in the hip flexor. Then a little bit more of a lift.

Then start to walk your feet forward. Here we go. Since babies are doing so good, we're gonna inhale, lengthen. We're gonna flat back before we go over to the other side. Really draw those abs in to support your spine.

If you want to, babies can rest their little feet there for a minute. And if they're feeling good and they're happy with it, you can just release your spine down a little bit more. Softening your shoulders. Just letting babies have a little fun with making contact with the floor. (laughing) Yay.

Beautiful. Good, so we're gonna roll up really carefully with baby. Very slowly by tucking the tailbone and drawing the navel towards the spine. Right here where you start to get a little weight in the shoulder, use your abs to come on back up. Nice.

Then we'll rotate these toes out. Come on the back toes. Feet about hip distance apart for balance, and we'll just go to the second side. Again, squaring the hips to the front. Lengthening through the spine.

Shoulder blades down the back. Navel towards the spine to support your back. Bending the back leg into a little crescent. If you wanna rest baby right here,(giggle)you can. Breathing.

(laughs) She's like, "Where's my buddy?" We're gonna do a little bit of that pulse. So they have a little fun with this sometimes. You give them a little ride, bouncing. Keeping the spine long. Keeping the breath active.

Beautiful, yes. Couple more times. Good. And then just start to ease your way back. Toes coming forward.

Johanna's gonna have to do a big ol' step and open. How did it feel on your backs, ladies, when we did down to the floor? You wanna do that one again? Okay, good. Half way down, just pause right here.

Engage your abs and then release your spine down. If you need to bend your knees, momma at home, you can do that. Just let baby make contact with the floor. Soften everything back out. Maybe sway side to side here.

Bending one knee and connecting through the outer edge of the opposite foot. Good. Just letting the groin open a little bit. Softening the belly. Relaxing the spine, and kinda firing up the legs a little.

Great. Good. Working your way back into center. We're gonna roll it up by bending the knees so we don't put any strain on the lower back. Then just tuck the tailbone, roooollll it up. Babies are doing amazing.

They're pros. (laughs) They've been doing this since they were in the belly. So, we're gonna shift the toes out. Pigeon toe the back foot a little bit. Engage through the outer edge of that back foot. We're just gonna this time take into a Warrior.

We're a little restricted with the arms, but that's okay. We can still go into Warrior II by just shifting our torso this way. If you want to, you can do what Johanna's doing and just work with one arm. Come back giving yourself that sense of inhaling, lengthening through the spine working with the breath. Exhaling, opening through the shoulders.

Yes, expanding as much as you can. Grounding. One more time. Inhaling. Opening.

Beautiful. Then start to straighten that front leg, and then pigeon toe those other toes. Open the left. Ground through the outer edge of the back foot. Get really grounded and then start to sink that front knee bending it into Warrior I.

Shoulders are square to the front. You might have baby resting like Johanna and Rudd are. Lengthening through the spine. Big deep inhale. Exhale.

Open the shoulders. Good, and then just keep working with that. Inhale, lengthening and squaring, and opening. Grounding through the legs. Lengthening through the spine.

Expanding through the shoulders. Working with the breath, opening. Good, and last time. You might just be working with one arm as you open, or you're just rotating through the spine and the torso. This next one we're gonna come up, straighten this leg drawing the knee in.

Rotate the toes back in, and let's just heel toe our feet together. Inhale and just lift the sternum and the chest a little, get a little bit of a shoulder opener right here. Good, and let's just thank our beautiful little yogis. Actually, little and big yogis. (laughs)They're all beautiful.

Thank you very much. Amazing. Namaste.